ART

Student Art Showdown

The world's first internet-powered high school art competition.

Champions of Art★ Schools Compete★ You Vote★ Art Wins★ Where Art Ignites★ Sept 30 2028★ Champions of Art★ Schools Compete★ You Vote★ Art Wins★ Where Art Ignites★ Sept 30 2028★
The Competition

What Is The
Showdown?

Free To Enter High School Teams One Comp A Year

Win school-changing prizes in real life when your school enters a student art team in one discipline: visual art, film, street art, performance, design. A panel of real working artists will pick finalists. And then the internet votes to give one school an installation upgrade to their art department, providing kids the creative space they deserve.

Who EntersHigh school teams, anywhere. One project per school.
Who DecidesA jury picks the finalists. Then the public votes on the winner.
What You WinA permanent build for your school, a film, plus the Golden Ellie trophy.
$0
Cost To Enter
No entry fee. No travel to compete.
1×
Competitions A Year
A new discipline each round.
100%
Prize Stays At School
Built on site. Yours to keep.
The Showdown

How It
Works

The four stages to winning.

01
Open Call
High schools submit one project each. Every competition focuses on a single discipline: visual art, film, street art, performance, cuisine, design. Materials are shipped to every finalist.
02
Jury Selects
A panel of working professional artists reviews every submission and names five finalists. Each finalist gets their own documentary of the making-of process.
03
Public Votes
The finalist films go up on our YouTube channel and the ballot opens to the public here at artalyst.org.
04
The Reveal
We travel to the winning school to present the prize, the Golden Ellie, in front of the entire student body — alongside unveiling a new build for the school: a studio, a 50-foot mural, a billboard.
Preview · First Competition Sept 2028

How Voting
Will Work.

During each Showdown the public votes right here at artalyst.org — same rubric as the jury, same window as the films go live. Try the mock-up below.

The Void Orchestra — dark-room circuit-bent concert
Finalist A · Breslin High School of the Arts
The Void Orchestra
An immersive, dark-room concert where 12 students play instruments made entirely of custom circuit-bent electronics, triggered by motion-tracking cameras and reactive light projections.
34%4,218 votes
Cable Car Choir — young musicians performing in an aerial cable car
Finalist B · Instituto Técnico San Andrés
Cable Car Choir
A 4-minute musical piece recorded on phones, tracking three young street musicians performing inside a moving urban cable car high above the city.
41%5,087 votes
Finalist C · Submission
Finalist C · Aalto Creative Academy
Glacier Residuals
A 4-minute ambient composition recorded inside a subterranean lava tube, featuring a student ensemble playing through water-filled basalt vessels tuned to capture natural chamber resonance.
25%3,104 votes
The Prize

The Prizes.

Every prize is physical, lasting, and built for the school and the students — and future students — who use it. Funded by Artalyst and our partners, built with local teams and working artists.

I
Cutting-Edge Studio Makeover
A school’s art room, transformed overnight. From a high-fire kiln suite to a color-calibrated digital lab or a large-format 3D printing bay, students walk in next semester to an industry-grade studio built for their future.
II
New Infrastructure
A school’s creative footprint reimagined: high-voltage power upgrades, industrial ventilation, reinforced fabrication pads, or solar infrastructure. A refreshed art space built to handle anything students can imagine.
III
Career Accelerator
Winning students get 1-on-1 career mentorship, professional portfolio reviews, and direct pathways to internships and industry networks — with industry-leading creatives and brand partners connected directly with the school.
IV
National Gallery Showcase & Film
The student’s journey and artwork turned into a professionally produced documentary short, paired with a feature exhibit at a premier gallery space — elevating student voices from the classroom to a national platform.
The Golden Ellie
A golden elephant trophy, sculpted by a commissioned artist each cycle. Every winning school keeps their own Ellie — engraved with their name, their year, and their title. It stays in their case for good.
★ ★ ★ The Golden Ellie
Golden Ellie
Official Trophy · Yours To Keep
Sculpted annually by a commissioned artist. Engraved with the winning school's name. It goes home with them and stays there.
Performance / Stage
Dramatic performance — dance, theatre, spoken word
On Camera

Every Finalist Gets A Film.

Make it to the final and a crew makes a short documentary about your team, your school, and the work you built. It goes out to the whole audience during voting week and lives online as a showpiece of your talent and work.

30

First Competition · September 30, 2028

Get Your School
In.

Entries run through your school, so the fastest thing you can do is send this page to your art teacher. Add your school to the waitlist and we'll send application instructions to your school.

Why Enter

What Your
School Gets.

Art programs are asked to prove their value every budget cycle. This is a way to do it in front of your district, your parents, and your town.

01
Costs Nothing
No entry fee, no travel to compete. Students submit from your classroom with the tools you have.
02
Students Get Exposure
Reach the final and a crew makes a series of short documentaries about your student team. Use it for recruitment, boosters, and presentations.
03
Materials Are Funded
Finalists receive the supplies for the final build, shipped and paid for by Artalyst. Budget is never the reason a school can't finish.
04
Schools Get Real Upgrades
An upgraded photo studio, a new kiln, a projection room your students will still be using in ten years.
05
Towns & Communities Rally
Voting turns parents, alumni, local businesses and rival schools into a fanbase.
06
Fits Your Curriculum
Built to slot into an existing semester cycle rather than sit on top of it.
What You Get

Three Levels of Value.

Every Entrant
You Enter
  • Named on the entrants wall at artalyst.org
  • Eligible for Shorts and social features
  • A downloadable brief and rubric you can teach from
  • First access to the next competition cycle
Three To Five Schools
You Reach The Final
  • A documentary made about your team and their work
  • Build materials shipped and funded
  • Written feedback from the jury
  • Your school on the ballot in front of the full audience
One School
You Win
  • The Golden Ellie, engraved and yours to keep
  • The build — studio, mural, installation or billboard
  • A reveal day filmed at your school
  • Travel for the team and teacher where the prize requires it
How To Enter

The Road To
Sept 30.

One teacher registers the school. Everything after that comes to you by email, on a schedule you can plan a term around.

Now
Add Your School
Two minutes, one form. No commitment to compete — it puts you on the list to receive the brief first.
Summer
The Brief Drops
The discipline, the theme, the rubric, and the submission requirements are published. Waitlisted schools receive it before the public announcement.
Sept 30
The First Showdown Opens
The announcement film goes live and submissions open worldwide. Your students build during the entry window.
After Close
The Jury Selects
Working artists review every entry and name the finalists. Finalist schools are contacted directly and filming is scheduled.
Voting Week
The Public Votes
Finalist films publish and the ballot opens. This is the week your community turns out — we send schools everything they need to rally their side.
Reveal Day
We Come To You
The winning school gets the Golden Ellie and the build, unveiled in front of the whole student body and filmed for the finale.
Judging

Art Judged On 5 Pillars.

The jury and the public share one rubric, published before entries open.

Impact
Did it make you feel something intense? The work should move the viewer, not just impress.
Originality
Have we seen this before? Fresh vision matters more than technical mastery.
Execution
Mastery of craft in the chosen medium. Given the resources, was it made with real skill.
Risk
Did students push into unknown territory? Safe work rarely wins.
Resonance
The best art follows you home. That is what the Showdown is looking for: work that is unforgettable.
Teacher FAQ

Questions
You'll Get
Asked.

What does it cost to enter?
Nothing. There is no entry fee, no submission platform to license, and no travel required to compete. If your school reaches the final, the materials for the final build are shipped to you and paid for by Artalyst.
Who is eligible?
Secondary and high school students, entering as a school team with a supervising teacher or staff member. Public, private, charter, and international schools are all welcome. Exact age range and eligibility rules to be confirmed with the competition brief.
Do students enter individually or as a team?
As a team, registered through the school. One project per school per competition. How you pick the team is up to you — some schools will run an internal selection, others will make it the whole class's project.
How much class time does it take?
It is designed to fit inside one existing project cycle — roughly four to six weeks of normal studio time. The brief, deadline, and rubric are published up front so you can plan it into a term.
Who owns the artwork?
The students do. Entering grants Artalyst permission to photograph, film, and publish the work as part of the competition. Full media release and permissions language to be finalised with counsel.
Do we need special equipment?
No. Entries are judged on concept and execution relative to the resources available, and submissions can be filmed on a phone. Nothing in the rubric rewards a bigger budget.
01

Registration Open Now

Put Your School
On The List.

Two minutes, one form, no commitment to compete. Waitlisted schools get the brief before it goes public — which is roughly a month of extra planning time.

Why This Exists

Art Has A Problem.
Funding.

The Problem
Art Gets Cut First

When a school budget tightens, the art room is often the first line to get cut, and there is no scoreboard to defend it with.

2,095,538
students attend public schools that offer zero arts courses of any kind during the school day.
Arts Education Data Project (AEDP) National Status Report

At the same time, teenagers are making more images, films, music and design than any generation before them. The output is enormous. The stage is missing.

The Solution
Give It A Season

Sport already solved this. It has a season, a stage, stakes, and an audience — so it gets funded, celebrated, and shown up for. Artalyst gives student art the same structure.

A competition with real drama, a public rubric so nobody has to guess how it was judged, and a prize that is an improvement to the winning school. Attention becomes funding. Funding becomes tools students use for decades.

17%
Share of public schools with no dedicated art teacher. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
1.2% vs 3.2%
Average per-student arts budget vs. athletics budget. Arts Education Partnership (AEP)
73%
Of students report that their work remains private. Pew Research Center
Our Mission

Art Belongs On The Same Stage As Sport.

501(c)(3) Non-Profit

Artalyst exists to build the biggest stage student art has ever had — a place where high school teams compete, communities are transformed, and the audience decides who wins.

Every competition cycle funds a school's art program, installs a lasting physical prize in their community, and turns a student's work into a filmed event people follow start to finish.

SpectacleCinematic scale, real stakes, surprise reveals
Competition StakesJury, finalists, audience votes, genuine drama
BuildPhysical prizes that outlast the competition
The Format

Five Videos.
One
Movement.

Each Showdown is built as a five-episode arc, so attention compounds across a cycle instead of spiking once. Click through the tabs to see how the story builds — from the opening announcement to the final reveal.

Preview
Episode 01 · Launch
The Announcement
A trailer-style call for submissions. A life-changing prize for a school anywhere in the world, clear rules, and a countdown. The audience starts watching before a single entry exists.
01
The Announcement
02
Jury Selects
03
You Decide
04
Winner Reveal
05
Always On
Episode copy — edit here, then click a tab above to preview
LabelEpisode 01 · Launch
TitleThe Announcement
BodyA trailer-style call for submissions. A life-changing prize for a school anywhere in the world, clear rules, and a countdown. The audience starts watching before a single entry exists.
LabelEpisode 02 · Selection
TitleJury Selects The Finalists
BodyBehind the scenes with the jury panel and the deliberation. Three to five schools emerge, profiles drop, and voting opens.
LabelEpisode 03 · Voting Week
TitleYou Decide Who Wins
BodyShort cinematic profiles of each finalist, cut with their own footage. The host guides the week, the public votes, and the rubric stays published throughout.
LabelEpisode 04 · Flagship
TitleThe Winner Reveal
BodyWe travel to the school for a surprise reveal. The Golden Ellie is awarded and the prize is unveiled — a transformed studio, a 50-foot mural, a billboard. The whole school erupts.
LabelEpisode 05 · Always On
TitleShorts, BTS & Spin-Offs
BodyEvery finalist gets their own short. Behind the scenes with the judges, reaction clips, teasers. The flywheel keeps turning between cycles.
The Model

Everyone At
The Table Gains.

Artalyst
Funds Prizes & Infrastructure
As a 501(c)(3), Artalyst turns donor capital into lasting community prizes — art rooms, murals, public installations. Every dollar is visible, traceable, and physical. Donors can point at what they built.
The Channel
Platform, Audience & Production
Our YouTube channel turns each competition into a multi-episode arc. The audience isn't passive — they cast the deciding vote, which is why engagement compounds from one cycle into the next.
Brand Partners & Sponsors
Scale The Prize Pool
Partners whose audiences live at the intersection of creativity, youth, and culture. Ground-floor proof of concept grows into flagship partnership at scale. Alignment, not product integration.
Schools & Students
Compete, Win, Get Resources
Every school that enters gains exposure. Every finalist gets a short film and funded materials. Every winner receives a prize that outlasts the broadcast and stays in the building.
Partnership

Brands That
Believe.

We're in conversation with founding partners across technology, creative tools, and culture — brands whose audiences, values, and cultural ambitions line up with a student art movement built at the scale of sport. Ground-floor partnership is open now, before scale.

Tier One
Founding Partner
Named alongside the competition from cycle one, with presence across every episode, the ballot, and the reveal.
Tier Two
Prize Underwriter
Fund one build outright — a studio, a mural, an installation — and be there on reveal day when it is unveiled.
In Kind
Materials & Tools
Supply the kit that ships to finalists. Your tools end up in the hands of the students actually making the work.
Individual
Donors & Advisors
Tax-deductible giving to a 501(c)(3), or a seat on the jury and advisory panel. Both conversations are open.

Artalyst is in proof-of-concept phase. The first competition launches September 30, 2028, and founding partner and donor conversations are happening now.

30

First Competition · September 30, 2028

Join Us.

We're looking for founding partners, donors, and advisors who want to be part of this from the ground floor — before scale, before the flywheel spins.

Modal copy variants — these swap in when a button is clicked
Donation modal
KickerDonation
HeadlineMake A Donation
BodyArtalyst is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Every dollar funds a physical, lasting prize in a school. Tell us a bit about you and we'll follow up with options.
Partnership modal
KickerPartnership
HeadlinePartner With Artalyst
BodyFounding partner and donor conversations are open now. Tell us who you are and we'll be in touch within 48 hours.